I love baking cookies! There is something about the aroma of baking cookies that floods my mind with happy memories and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Plus I really like the massive variety that you find in cookies and the techniques used to make them, everything from icebox to no-bake cookies. I love them all! It’s a wonder I don’t weigh a lot more than I do!
A really great feature of these particular cookies is the ability to make them ahead (see Quick Tip). Not only can they be refrigerated, they MUST be refrigerated, for at least an hour. You can even freeze them and take them out and bake them a few at a time. Most excellent for portion control!
INGREDIENTS
1½ cups + 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour (see Quick Tip)
¼ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature.
¾ cup packed light brown sugar (or dark brown)
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature1
1 Tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon red food coloring (liquid, gel, or 2 tsp beet powder alternative – add more for deeper red coloring)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (plus a few extra for after-baking decoration)
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper (silicone mats) and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
Next, cream the butter by beating at high speed, about 1 minute, scraping down the sides of your bowl, as needed. Beat brown sugar and granulated sugar into the creamed butter until well-combined, about 1 minute. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla extract and beat into the creamed butter/sugar mix until well-combined. Scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl, as needed, to ensure all ingredients enter the mix. Now add the food coloring (or beet powder), beating until thoroughly combined. If you want a brighter-red dough, beat in more food coloring (or beet powder).
Stop beating and carefully add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Using the low speed on your mixer, slowly beat until you get a very soft dough. Carefully fold the chocolate chips into the sticky dough at this point.
Now tightly cover the dough with either foil or plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour (or up to 3 days– see Quick Tip). In order for the cookies to turn out right, the cookie dough MUST go through this chilling process.
Scoop 1.5 Tbsp. of dough from your mixing bowl, rolling it into a ball and placing 9 balls, evenly-spaced, on each baking sheet. Bake for 10-11 minutes. Cookies may only spread slightly, so simply press down on each warm cookie to slightly flatten it and form breaks. If you want them to look extra-fancy, press a few chocolate chips on the top of each cookie, while they are still warm.
Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
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Quick Tip: Want to get a head start on your baking and make these cookies ahead? No problem! Here are several ways to do it. First, you can go ahead and make up your cookie dough and keep it chilled in your refrigerator for up to 3 days. Then when you are ready to bake, let the dough return to room temperature before rolling it into balls. You could also go ahead and make up your cookie dough balls, put them in a Ziploc bag or other airtight container and freeze them for up to 3 months. When you want to bake one frozen cookie, or an entire batch, there is no need to thaw them first, just add an extra minute to the baking time. Once you have baked the cookies, they will stay fresh in an airtight container kept at room temperature for up to a week.
Recipe courtesy of Sally at Sally’s Baking Addiction and image courtesy of Sherneata at allrecipes.com
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